Cycling: Racing into the Headwind

July 13, 2022. Stage 11 of the Tour de France.

Jonas Vingegaard of the Jumbo Team, in coordination with his teammate Primož Roglič, launched several rounds of attritional attacks against Tadej Pogačar of the Emirates Airline Team. Finally, on the Granon Pass before the finish line, he dropped Pogačar to win the stage with a solo flight, donning the Yellow Jersey for the first time in his career.

Simultaneously, in the general classification standings, he went from a 37-second deficit before the stage to overturning it and taking a lead of 2 minutes and 22 seconds!

...

Hangcheng, Feichi Bicycle Boutique.

After watching the live broadcast, the bike shop’s owner, Dewey, felt like his world was collapsing as he watched his idol suffer a major breakdown.

"Old Huang, it’s over!! Pogačar got completely run ragged by that Jumbo crew. He lost over two minutes in a single stage. Do you think he can still make a comeback?"

Hearing Dewey’s question and seeing his furious expression, Huang Chong was a bit dazed.

’2022?’

’Stage 11 of the Tour de France?’

’What the hell?’

As far as he knew, the 2025 Tour de France was already over!

’Did I... get reborn?’

Huang Chong glanced around, taking in his surroundings. He confirmed this fact when he realized he was in a bike shop, not his old home back in the county town.

He was all too familiar with this bike shop. It was opened by his college classmate, and he had even worked here as an assistant mechanic after graduation.

However, he remembered that he had only worked here for half a year. His parents thought that a college graduate doing this kind of job was just messing around, so they called him back home to inherit the family convenience store.

After that, he became a store owner while continuing to cycle, living a rather comfortable life.

Unfortunately, during his most recent descent on a winding mountain road back home, a car that didn’t honk suddenly shot out of a blind U-turn. To avoid it, he and his bike flew off the shoulder and plunged off a cliff.

The cliff was nearly a hundred meters high. The result was predictable.

Fortunately, heaven had actually let him be reborn.

"Old Huang, are you even listening to me? Zha Zi got dropped!! He’s now more than two minutes behind Vingegaard in the general classification!!"

Seeing Dewey’s agitated state, Huang Chong, who already knew the history of the race, was very calm. He nodded and said:

"I know. If you’re asking my opinion, Pogačar won’t be able to turn it around—and he doesn’t have a great chance of winning next year’s Tour de France, either!"

"What? Are you kidding me? Do you even know what you’re saying?"

Dewey was utterly astonished by Huang Chong’s statement, and even a little angry.

He was a die-hard Pogačar fan. Pogačar had just won the Tour de France in both 2020 and 2021 and was currently sweeping all types of top-tier road cycling races with an air of invincibility. And now his best friend was saying he would lose two consecutive Tour de France titles, the highest honor in the cycling world?

’What kind of outrageous claim is that?’

"My reasoning is simple. The Jumbo Team’s lineup is too strong. Plus, they’re a strategy-oriented team. With so many top-tier cyclists to play tactics with one another, how could they lose?"

Huang Chong spoke with the confident, authoritative air of a grand strategist, saying:

"Take this last stage, for example. They clearly used Roglič and Vingegaard as dual leaders to pull and wear down Pogačar. He could only react exhaustedly, which ultimately led to his collapse.

And in the upcoming stages, they can also have their all-rounder domestique, Van Aert, go for a breakaway and then link up with Vingegaard at a key point, pulling off a ’mid-air refueling’ tactic.

But what about UAE? Besides relying on Pogačar to brute-force it on his own, they can’t do anything.

They have no tactical planning, nor do they have good enough domestiques to execute any tactics. Losing the Tour de France is inevitable for them!"

As soon as Huang Chong finished speaking, Dewey furrowed his brow unconsciously.

’Something’s wrong. Something’s very wrong!’

His classmate had only been in the cycling scene for a month. He’d only started watching pro road races with this Tour de France and had seen just ten stages in total. How could he analyze road cycling tactics so clearly and logically?

What was even more ridiculous was that the more he thought about it, the more he felt Huang Chong’s analysis was completely rational and well-founded, with every sentence hitting a key point. It made him wonder if the race’s outcome would really go the way he predicted.

’Could it be? Is this guy a natural-born team manager and tactical genius?’

The very thought seemed absurd to Dewey.

Out of extreme adoration for his idol, he was unwilling to admit Huang Chong might be right. He stubbornly said:

"You’re just talking nonsense. Anyway, I believe Zha Zi will definitely make a comeback!"

Huang Chong could only shrug.

’You really can’t wake up someone who’s pretending to be asleep.’

"Whatever. Forget about who wins or loses. Wouldn’t it be great if I could be like them, dominating the world’s top three Grand Tours and five Monuments?"

Huang Chong narrowed his eyes, looking at Vingegaard being interviewed as the stage winner on the computer screen. His expression was a mixture of yearning and ferocity.

He was an avid cycling enthusiast himself. Although he had gotten into the sport late, he had gone out for a ride almost every day during his years as a supermarket owner.

He enjoyed the electrifying speed of descents, and also the feeling of transformation after conquering each mountain—the sense of giving his all and constantly pushing beyond his limits.

Cycling was what gave his life a different kind of excitement and meaning beyond the mundane.

Even on rainy days or in the dead of winter, when others put their bikes away, he would ride his indoor trainer. He’d strictly follow the tutorials on cycling apps to train professionally and improve, all so he could participate in some domestic cycling races and grand fondos.

You could say that in his previous life’s cycling career, he had collected a pile of finisher’s medals from amateur events.

Of course, if you were to ask what his greatest ambition in this life was?

It would definitely be to become a world-class Professional Cyclist, flying through the major World Tour races organized by the UCI, competing head-to-head with the best cyclists on the same stage to see who was superior.

Taking it a step further, he even wanted to be like the legendary Colombian cyclist, Chief Jintana, winning a Grand Tour and breaking new ground for his entire country in the world of road cycling.

But Dewey just laughed and teased him:

"Old Huang, it’s fine to have a dream, but you can’t be delusional.

Forget about being a team leader and dominating the Grand Tours. In our country, China, we can’t even produce a rider to be a water carrier in a Grand Tour right now.

You can ride for fun, but don’t take it too seriously."

Huang Chong, of course, couldn’t agree with such a defeatist attitude.

He admitted his talent was limited, and he knew how big the gap was between Chinese and European cyclists. But if you don’t even dare to dream, what’s the difference between you and a salted fish?

But before he could retort, a sarcastic voice cut in from the side:

"The kid’s only been riding for a few days, but he’s got a big mouth. Talking about the three Grand Tours and five Monuments... have you even hit an average speed of 30 km/h over a hundred kilometers? And you’re here talking big!"

The speaker was decked out in luxury goods, even his belt was Gucci. A single glance told you he was a "Brother Fu."

Huang Chong recognized the man. His name was Zhou Ming, and he was the leader of an amateur cycling group in Hangcheng. The guy had several top-of-the-line road bikes worth over a hundred thousand yuan each—Pinarellos, Treks, Colnagos—that he would ride on different days. Combined with his years of riding, his own ability was actually decent; at any rate, he could get close to an average speed of 30 km/h over a hundred kilometers.

He was in the shop today to pick up a new bike that Dewey had assembled for him: a Canyon Aeroad CFR, the same bike used by van der Poel of the Alpecin team. In fact, Huang Chong had been the one to assemble the wheelset.

His banter with Dewey was just friendly teasing between classmates. But now, being mocked by an outsider for no reason really ticked him off.

’This guy has no ambition himself, yet he dares to mock others?’

He shot back without mercy:

"A newbie like me who just got into the scene can’t compare to a big pro like Group Leader Zhou, of course. I’m not like you, switching between top-tier bikes every day. But since Group Leader Zhou has been riding for so long, you must know how to get one’s average speed up to 30 km/h, right? Why don’t you give me a pointer or two, so a rookie like me can avoid some pitfalls?"

Zhou Ming felt a bit sour hearing this, but since the other party was actively asking for advice, not answering would make him look like he was all talk. So he forced a cold smile and said:

"What’s so hard about an average speed of 30? If you suck, just train more. Just ride a hundred kilometers every day and focus on improving your weaknesses. Your level will naturally go up!"

With that, he swung a leg over his new ride and left.

"That son of a bitch, he’s so infuriating!"

Dewey came from a well-off family, otherwise he couldn’t have opened such a high-end bicycle boutique. But compared to a rich heir like Zhou Ming, there was still a clear gap. He only dared to badmouth the guy behind his back, lest it hurt his business.

He patted Huang Chong’s shoulder and offered some words of comfort:

"Old Huang, don’t take it to heart. That guy’s just a rich show-off. I rode the Tour of Qiandao Lake with him last year, and his actual skill is nothing special!"

However, Huang Chong paid no attention to Dewey’s comfort. His eyes were fixed straight ahead, on a virtual panel that had suddenly appeared out of thin air when Zhou Ming was giving him "advice":

[Suggestion to improve weaknesses detected from another party. Cycling Optimization System initiating binding process with Host.]

[Even a small fry can have big dreams. As long as you improve your weaknesses, you can reach the pinnacle of the world.]

[Accept the novice test and formally activate the system?]

...